A University of Maine research group spent most of the 2008 spring on large research vessels, using a novel approach to study the annual spring phytoplankton bloom in the North Atlantic. Their observations provided rare real-world data of phytoplankton drifting from the surface to deeper waters. Carbon sequestration in the deep sea, thanks to sinking phytoplankton, is a key process that researchers around the world are incorporating into global climate models. [Source: Working Waterfront]